Google Could Use Small Nuclear Reactors to Power Data Centers

Google’s top executive confirmed the company is working on large-scale data centers that would use more than 1 GW of power. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a speech last week at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could possibly be used to generate the needed electricity.

Pichai said that Google’s goal of being a carbon-neutral company by 2030 will be challenged by the need to develop data centers amid the boom in artificial intelligence (AI). He said that does not mean the group will miss its goal. Google reportedly is putting together a team looking at carbon-free energy alternatives to serve its growing power demand worldwide.

“We are now working on over 1-GW data centers, which I didn’t think we would be thinking about just maybe even two years earlier, and all of this needs energy, ” Pichai said during a talk in Carnegie Mellon’s Highmark Center as part of the university’s 2024-25 President’s Lecture Series. Pichai spoke on “The AI Platform Shift and the Opportunity Ahead,” as he focused his company’s advancements in AI and his vision for a future driven by AI.

“I think in the short term it is challenging,” said Pichai. “In the medium to long term I’m optimistic, because I think it’s also bringing a lot of capital investment to developing new sources of energy. We invested very early in wind and solar because we saw the opportunity there. And today, many of our data centers operate at around 90% carbon-free basis.”

Pichai did not say Google would use SMRs to power its data centers, but noted, “I see the amount of money going into SMRs … for nuclear energy. And so when I look at the capital and innovation going in, I’m optimistic in the medium to long term.”

Those new energy sources include geothermal. Pichai mentioned the company’s use of geothermal to power a Nevada data center, part of Google’s plan with Nevada’s NV Energy to purchase geothermal energy from a power plant operated by Fervo Energy.

Here’s a video of Sundar Pichai’s talk at Carnegie Mellon University from the university’s YouTube channel. If you want to learn more about data centers and how the energy industry is working to solve the issue of providing electricity for these energy-intensive sites, register now to be part of Experience POWER Week, scheduled for Oct. 9-11, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. Hear from experts across the energy industry as they discuss trends shaping the power generation landscape, including the impact of power demand from data centers.

Oracle’s $10 Billion Plan

Interest in data centers is burgeoning as companies working with AI look to expand their footprints and capabilities. Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle, has said the company plans to invest more than $10 billion in a data center buildout. Ellison at an Oracle event earlier this year said that company wants to build “hundreds of data centers,” with at least one “in every country in the world.”

Microsoft last week said it wants to restart a reactor at the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to power its AI needs. The company in January said a demonstration project in Wyoming, as part of a collaboration with Caterpillar and Ballard Power, showed how hydrogen fuel cells can provide power for a data center.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) earlier this year acquired a data center campus adjacent to the 2.5-GW Susquehanna nuclear plant. Talen Energy, the plant’s owner, said AWS will buy power from the plant for the campus, which also includes a cryptomine facility.

Last week some media outlets, including Data Center Dynamics, and social media postings noted that both Microsoft and AWS want to hire managers to lead energy teams. The AWS posting specifically mentions a principal nuclear engineer for data centers.

—Darrell Proctor is senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).